In which John Green teaches you about various reform movements in the 19th century United States. From Utopian societies to the Second Great Awakening to the Abolition movement, American society was undergoing great changes in the first half of the 19th century. Attempts at idealized societies popped up (and universally failed) at Utopia, OH, New Harmony, IN, Modern Times, NY, and many other places around the country. These utopians had a problem with mainstream society, and their answer was to withdraw into their own little worlds. Others didn’t like the society they saw and decided to try to change it. Relatively new Protestant denominations like the Methodists and Baptists reached out to “the unchurched” during the Second Great Awakening, and membership in evangelical sects of Christianity rose quickly. At the same time, Abolitionist societies were trying to free the slaves. Americans of the 19th century had looked at the world they were living in and decided to change it.
Hey teachers and students – Check out CommonLit’s free collection of reading passages and curriculum resources to learn more about the events of this episode.
Of all of the reform movements of the 1800s, few were as impactful as the movement to abolish slavery: https://www.commonlit.org/texts/the-revolutionary-rise-of-abolitionists
Women were heavily involved in the abolitionist movement and firsthand stories like freed slave Harriet Ann Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were important to the cause: https://www.commonlit.org/texts/what-slaves-are-taught-to-think-of-the-north
Learn more about the abolitionist movement in Crash Course Black American History:
Maria Stewart (#14): https://youtu.be/nsVnWD5PrIg
Frederick Douglass (#17): https://youtu.be/7QOTexnD-NE
Chapters:
Introduction: Religious & Moral Reform Movements of the 19th Century 00:00
Shaker Communities 0:33
Latter Day Saints 1:21
Brook Farm 1:46
Other Utopian Communities 2:50
The 2nd Great Awakening 3:21
The Oneida Community 3:44
Values of the 2nd Great Awakening 4:25
The Temperance Movement 5:59
Asylums 7:02
Common Schools 7:29
The Abolitionist Movement 8:13
Resistance to the Abolitionist Movement 10:02
Abolitionist Writers 10:45
Mystery Document 11:40
Frederick Douglass 13:06
Credits 14:14
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